Zutara Week
by musiclover9419
Summary: Katara wanted to be forgetable and she was succeeding in doing so. That is until she met Zuko Agni.Seven rules will be broken and secrets will burst out of closets. Katara's carefully constructed life is falling apart. Which may be a good thing.
1. Prologue

**Zutara Week**

_Also Known as the Week My Carefully Constructed Life Fell Completely and Utterly Apart_

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or the idea of Zutara Week. I only own the plot and the occasionally OC that may pop in.<strong>

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

_Also Known as Katara's Rules to Surviving High School_

Once upon a time there was a girl like no other. She came from small beginnings, but that didn't stop her from achieving much. She lived centuries ago in a time of chaos and war. So she went on a quest to end the war with a young boy and her older brother. Along the way she met friends and enemies, fought couragous battles, and helped others. She was a unforgetable girl full of life, passion, and kindness. I only have one thing in common with this girl of legends.

My name is Katara.

My parents had a thing for legends when my brother and I were born. So we both ended up with the names of old war heroes of centuries ago. I think they wanted us to be like those heroes. They wanted by brother to be a leader, smart, and funny. They wanted me to be kind, caring, and brave. Well, my brother close so they didn't completely fail. Maybe I could have been like the Katara in all those old stories, but I'm not. I didn't want her adventurous life and wanted and easy one.

So over the course of my life I have set list of rules for myself. They are meant to keep my life as simple as possible. A simple and easy life I decided a number of years ago was the way to living a long life. A boring life at times maybe, but not every moment has to be full of passion and adventure right? I mean that's the stuff you only find in fluffy romance novels, not something in real life. I have no plans for my life to like one of those novels, so a boring life is fine with me.

Well, okay maybe a boring life is not what I want exactly. I mean pretty much every girl wants to be the girl in those fluffy romance novels to some extent and run off with her prince charming into the nearby sunset. Everyone has their dreams and wants though, but they tend to stay only dreams.

Honestly though, I'm fine with following my rules if I survive life or at least the rest of high school in particular. I mean my rules have got to my junior year in one piece, which is something to say about high school. High school is drama central with it's rumors, betrayals, and lies. All things I want to avoid wholeheartedly. So I'm sticking to my rules at least until I graduate.

My rules are very simple and pretty much guarantee maximum boringness. I have seven of them, I guess their my own personal commandments.

Rule 1 : Hold in your curiosity. Because curiosity, specially mine which rivals a cat, just leads to drama.

Rule 2 : Do yourself a favor and avoid unnecessary attention. Only talk when needed and be distant.

Rule 3 : Don't become too close to others, it will only end in heartache.

Rule 4: Don't tell anyone anything personal! Remember this is high school, home to the bloodthirsty and back-stabbing.

Rule 5 : Avoid major conflict and even the minor ones that can escalate quickly into larger than life problems.

Rule 6 : Keep your opinions, definitely your strong and loud ones, to yourself.

Rule 7: Do not ever EVER fall in love with anyone! High school is just full of lust and quick meaningless romances.

All of these look pretty on paper, but honestly they are hard to keep at times and just heart-breaking to follow. I thought I could keep these rules and keep my life drama free, I mean I pretty much have been doing it since middle school. I had high hopes in keeping these rules at least the remaining time I had left in high school and then drifting away from my rules would be gradual at least.

It took one week of knowing Zuko Agni to utterly demolish every single one of my rules, that I Katara Whitewater created.

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><p><strong>New story for Zutara Week 2011 on Deviantart. The story will have about nine chapters. I have the next chapter written and a good idea of what will happen next. Also I'm looking for a better title rather than Zutara Week so feel free to send suggestions. Please review I love to read your comments. <strong>

**PS: Long live the Zutara spirit! :)**


	2. A Masked Encounter

**Zutara Week**

_Also Known as the Week My Carefully Constructed Life Fell Completely and Utterly Apart_

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar:The Last Airbender or the idea of Zutara Week. I only own my plot and the occasional OC.<strong>

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><p><strong>The Masked Encounter<strong>

_Also Known as When Curiosity almost Killed the Katara_

I was feeling rebellious. That is bad. Very bad.

Honestly though, I felt I deserved a bit of that rebellious feeling. It had been a long exhausting school day and I just wanted to scream and shout profanities as loud as I could to the sky. Sadly, I couldn't do this so I settled on gritting my teeth and stomping hard as I could in every stinkin' puddle. The puddles in return sloshed into my worn converse shoes and soaked my already damp stiff jeans to my annoyance. Despite this I kept stomping in the puddles with my bag slapping against my leg.

Actually a long and exhausting school day is a bit of a under-exaggeration. I rarely ever had nasty school days. Sure I had long boring and annoying ones like anybody else, but truly nasty ones didn't come by often. When they did come, they _came_ if you get my drift. I had a feeling that today was going to be worse than usual firstly because I was sick half of the previous week. Which is always loads of fun between making up all the homework that was missed and because of questions and comments I received from casual acquaintances.

"You were sick?"

"Oh! You go here? Well, I guess you learn something new everyday."

"Wait, you were gone for three days?"

I could really feel the love. Maybe I was a bit too forgettable.

Getting back on topic, the other reasons why today was just plain horrible was that I tripped twice in the hallway today (knocking someone over once), spilled my soda all over myself at lunch, and had the pleasure of taking two long tests after school. I seemed to be on a roll too. Once I was able to finally leave school, it was around six and I got text on my almost dead phone asking to pick up some groceries. Deciding to be a helpful grand-daughter for once I went to the supermarket on the other side of the city and grabbed the food as quick as I could. Once I managed to get the food in the car I tried to start it. It didn't work of course. This was the point where I began to want yell every curse I knew toward the hunk of junk I called a car.

After some angry tears, curses, and a stubbed toe from kicking the old car I decided to test my luck by walking home. It was only around 7:30 and the walk home would only take about an half hour. Lady Luck though decided to continue her absence when it began to rain. And when I say rain I mean downpour.

So that 's how I came to be where I was now. In the rain where I was gritting my teeth and stomping through every puddle at eight at night. It was dark and I was cold and cranky beyond belief. I ceased my stomping through poor innocent puddles and tried to set a quicker pace to getting home. Being in Chicago on a dark stormy night by yourself is a slasher horror movie flick waiting to happen. I was not, quite frankly, in the mood to play the screaming helpless victim. I racked my brain trying to remember any shortcuts to get home quicker, it was not often that I was in this area. I finally stopped my fast walking and squinted at the nearby street sign while wiping my thick brown hair from my face. In relief I gave a bitter smile at the sign.

"Only about seven more blocks," I sighed as my annoyance began to ebb away as I began to walk again.

Every alleyway I passed seemed to whisper to be me to take a closer look. I tried to walk quicker repeating '_curiosity killed the cat_' under my breath because I really did not need that phrase turn into '_curiosity killed the Katara_.' Despite these mutterings though my rebellious feeling grew in my chest and pumped through me with every step I took. So when I finally heard true whispers coming from an alley...

"I'm such an idiot," I mumbled under my breath. I pushed back my hair again and put it up messily and put my hood up to cover it. "Why didn't I do that earlier?" I mumbled again watching the group with curiosity.

I watched the five figures in the alleyway as they argued quickly in some other language. All five of the people were wearing dark clothing and bright red and orange masks. Four were obviously men while the last seemed to be a woman. The four men were all arguing in low harsh tones with the woman adding in her two cents every few moments. After crouching for several minutes I thought that I shouldn't push my luck any further and began to position myself so I could get up quietly. That plan failed rather spectacularly. And I meant a very loud obvious girlish shriek of terror exiting my mouth kind of spectacular.

The cause of my rather girlish shriek (that I am now rather embarrassed about) was the tallest man grabbing a gun and shooting a short man standing opposite of him. My shriek soon followed the loud gunshot and all eyes turned to me. They all seemed to freeze and I quickly dashed out of the alleyway and ran as fast as I could. Moments after I left the alleyway I could hear a commanding voice yell something and soon two men were running through the puddles after me.

I fully blamed this situation on my thoughts of slasher horror movies and my curiosity. My own brain seemed to be mocking me as I heard '_curiosity killed the Katara_' ring constantly throughout my head. My feet slapped the pavement and puddles as I ran and did quick turns around corners. Soon I could feel my legs and side ache as I unwilling began to slow down. The men behind me were not slowing down at all and seemed to running faster with their guns now out. Every curse word I knew and some my brother made up raced through my head as I turned another corner with a bullet swishing near as my hood flew down.

One moment I was running across the pavement the next I was off the ground and slammed against a wall in an alley. A figure in a laughing blue mask stood in front and grabbed me. A hand was slapped over mouth before I could even consider to scream in fright or curse the owner of the hand while the other held me tightly. Automatically I began the squirm, kick, and bite at the feeling of the arm. The parts of my dad's police stories I usually ignore race through my head.

'_Curiosity killed the Katara, curiosity killed the Katara, curiosity killed the Katar-_'

"Quiet!" The masked man hissed into my ear,"And stop moving."

Needless to say, I ignored him and continued to struggle even if it did not help at all. . I was terrified, cold, soaked, and still a bit angry. I was not an happy camper. Hell, I was going to listen to him. All the masked man did though was hold me tighter and grumble under his breath

"I'll take care of brainless and gun-happy over there have fun with her," a voice called from the shadows before it ran out of the alley.

Soon after I heard the guns clatter against the sidewalk and the voice from seconds ago yelling mockingly something in a different language at the men. Sounds of a fight soon began afterward.

"Keep up," the masked man hissed in my ear before he released me from his hold. Before I could yell '_Rape!_', '_Stranger Danger!'_, or whatever else I was dragged further into the alley. We both run through out the alley till we reach the end of it.

"Go home or somewhere safe!" The masked man whispered harshly to me holding close. "Don't linger, just go and get away is quick as you can!"

He pushed me out of the alley and by the time I turned around he had disappeared into the alley. As he left the childish chanting of '_Curiosity killed the Katara_' left to my relief. Deciding to take his advice, as I already had done too many stupid and dangerous things, I ran the rest of the two blocks home with my heart pounding. Once I got inside the doors my worried grandmother confronted me at the door and asked about ten questions in one breath. I told her of my dead phone and the car still at the grocery store before heading up to my room.

I needed to a quiet and safe place to have a nervous breakdown-I mean recollect and think about what just happened. Yeah, all I did was thinking.

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><p><strong>Well here's the first chapter. If you couldn't guess this corrosponds with the <em>Mask<em> prompt. Reviews and advice are much loved! Also if you have a better idea of the title, I'm open to ideas. Oh, I also accepted anonymous reviews. **


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